One Voice featured during Corn Days Gospel Night

Many gifted singers have emerged from White County over the years. One of those natives is Bryan Cowling who will be part of the lineup with his trio One Voice during Corn Days Gospel Night set for 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 11 at First Christian Church.

Many gifted singers have emerged from White County over the years. One of those natives is Bryan Cowling who will be part of the lineup with his trio One Voice during Corn Days Gospel Night set for 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 11 at First Christian Church.

One Voice will team up with The Chosen Ones, a southern gospel group based out of Manchester, which is near Jacksonville, Ill. The Rueter family, now headed by Mike and Melanie, formed the group in the late 1960's and continues to add family members. They perform more than 160 concerts each year and recently released their latest CD, "So Blessed." The two groups (The Chosen Ones and One Voice) have performed together many times and complement each other's styles of performances.

"We (One Voice) sing with them about a half dozen times each year," said Cowling. "They are very good friends of ours. They recently did a Tribute to America tour with another group, so they may do some patriotic tunes during the concert in Carmi."

One Voice was created in 2003. Cowling and Darrell Marshall were instrumental in starting the group and joined forces with Matt Throgmorton of Marion as the three original members. Marshall left the group after three years and has since relocated to Tennessee where he continues to work in ministry and music and pursue a singing career.

When Marshall left One Voice, Cowling and Throgmorton had heard Deon Baker of Crab Orchard sing on various occasions and through a mutual acquaintance, got in contact with him. Therefore the trio of Cowling, Throgmorton and Baker have been together for the past six years.

One Voice handles between 70 and 75 performance dates per year, mainly concentrating on the Midwest area. Occasionally, their work takes them out of the four-hour radius of southern Illinois to concerts in places such as Florida, but most locations are in Illinois, Missouri and Kentucky. However, that is about to change for One Voice.

"We are going to Israel in February to sing with the TLC Holy Land Tours," said Cowling. "We have several locations where we will sing, including a cruise on the Sea of Galilee. It is a 10-day event and will be a really neat experience."

One Voice's most recent CD was released about a year ago titled "Love Worth Dying For." The music on the CD includes a compilation of original songs as well as a few cover songs.

"We try to record original songs as much as we can to create our own sounds," said Cowling. "We have been blessed to make good contacts with some songwriters for original music."

One Voice is getting ready to begin work on a new CD, which will focus on older, classic type songs. The past two CDs have been recorded at Three Angels Broadcasting near West Frankfort under the assistance of ET Everett, who is known locally as Ethel Veatch, a native of Enfield.

Page 2 of 2 - "Three Angels Broadcasting is as nice as anything in Nashville," said Cowling. "The Chosen Ones have recorded with her as well."

When he's not traveling with One Voice, Cowling works for Stiles Office Solutions based in Carbondale, a position he has held for the past nine years. His wife, Jayme, a native of the Enfield area, is a first grade school teacher at Norris City Omaha Elementary. They have two children, Chayce, 19, who is a freshman at Southeastern Illinois College, and Ashtyn, who is a freshman at Carmi-White County High School.

Corn Days' Gospel Night kicks off Friday, Oct. 11 with a fellowship hour from 6 until 7 p.m. featuring cookies, coffee, tea and lemonade in the Fellowship Hall at First Christian Church. The concert gets under way at 7 p.m. and admission is free. A love offering will be received.

For more information on One Voice, go to the group's Website at onevoicetrio.org. For more information on The Chosen Ones, go to the Website at thechosenones.org.